Executive Viewpoint: Etay Bogner, Neocleus By Etay Bogner published: Wednesday, December 03 2008
Prediction: In 2009, Client-hosted virtualization will
emerge as the most effective solution for reducing TCO of corporate-owned PCs
With the economy in a state of disarray and likely to be so
for the foreseeable future, organizations in 2009 will continue to seek out
means to weather the storm. Virtualization
has been touted as one of the key technology investments that will prove
effective in reducing costs amidst tougher economic conditions. But the question is: how exactly will the
rewards of virtualization translate into real bottom-line savings?
One clear way to reduce TCO of corporate-owned desktops and
laptops is to lock them down and increase manageability. Gartner in 2008 estimated that the TCO of
unmanaged endpoints averaged more than $5,000 per device, with moderately
managed endpoints averaging a reduction of almost 20 percent of that cost. For a fully locked-down and managed endpoint,
the firm estimated that TCO was reduced to just $3,500 per device. This is an exorbitant expenditure, and one
that will need to be reduced if IT departments are going to continue to invest
in innovative technologies with which to increase productivity and demonstrate
their value to the broader organization.
Savings will be realized through the adoption of client-hosted
virtualization. This will be compounded
by the emergence of the Type 1, "bare metal" hypervisor as the industry
standard method of delivering a locked-down, fully managed corporate computing
environment that ultimately enables this reduced TCO. Previous solutions have not delivered the
performance and security required by both IT and end users - either because the
application could not be fully protected, or because they resulted in such degradations
in performance that end user efficiency and productivity were significantly
compromised and business performance suffered.
Client-hosted virtualization represents a surefire way to
manage and secure the client computing infrastructure. When implemented correctly using a Type 1,
"bare metal" hypervisor, it can allow IT departments to lock down the corporate
environment on the endpoint desktop or laptop, with security enforced outside
the virtual machine. This also enables
the deployment of IT processes outside of the operating system for increased
control over the corporate machine, improving the user experience with
increased system responsiveness to local devices and network interfaces.
But more than this, client-hosted virtualization addresses
distinct use cases beyond just reducing TCO of corporate desktops and
laptops. It allows organizations to
finally deliver "Bring-your-own-PC" programs which were previously unachievable. In addition, client-hosted virtualization
provides for secure isolation of multiple projects on the same device -
negating the need for outsourced employees to own two workstations - and enables
a more secure remote experience. When a
Type 1 hypervisor is installed on desktops and laptops IT can control the
corporate image in a closed environment and maintain multiple locked-down workspaces,
all while giving end users a highly efficient open environment in which to work.
The simple fact is that as companies look to cut costs in
2009 with virtualization, they need to be assured that the investments they
make are translating into quantifiable cost savings, and reducing TCO over
corporate computing clearly represents one of the most logical solutions for
this. By virtualizing the client and
implementing a Type 1 hypervisor to provide the means to deliver a locked down
corporate image, companies can reap these tangible cost savings to demonstrate
their bottom-line impact. The Type 1
hypervisor will emerge as the most effective solution for reducing TCO of
corporate-owned PCs and demonstrating additional benefits that go far beyond
this cost savings.
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Etay Bogner is the co-founder and chief
technology officer of Neocleus. He is responsible for executing against the
company’s product vision and for setting the technology vision. Neocleus is Etay's
second entrepreneurial venture. The first, Sofaware Technologies Ltd., was
ultimately acquired by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.
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